Although business users of electronic calendars can maintain a schedule of events in their electronic calendars, when it comes time to creating financial accounting entries corresponding to the events, the users have to manually enter the relevant information. This situation introduces two problems.
The first problem is redundancy in terms of input. The user enters the same details in at least two places, once in the calendar, and then again in an accounting entry (e.g., an expense report or a timesheet entry). Additionally, most of the current expense-entry applications require data entry by system codes, thereby introducing the potential for error due to wrong entries, sometimes due to user errors or incorrect code mapping. The incorrect mapping can cause exclusion of billable expenses or inclusion of incorrect expenses from invoices. Details like these can impact customer trust and future business prospects.
The second problem is the lack of a real-time cash forecast. Since the expense reports and timesheet entries are entered into the system only upon completion of the corresponding business operations, the business owner does not have a real-time view of upcoming expense and billing details. This lack of insight into key information related to major expenses can pose a major risk to the business.